[FADCA] ARRL Packet poll

[Chuck Hast]

On 6/27/05, David Calder <n4zkf at n4zkf.com> wrote:
> It's called the Internet.

Dave, I think that the problem is that we (the amateur data community)
did not press on, we got to a point and stopped. Your average BBS is
still a command line access, yes they have wrapped the packet terminal
programs in GUI apps but the basic access is still a command line
sort of 3270 type screen.

Brian Lantz of TNOS fame did a http interface for TNOS so that you could
access TNOS with a browser but for some reason no one really used it as
far as I know. 

We can lament speed all we want but the mobile community even today with
all of the "high speed" CDMA 1xRTT and GSM GPRS/EDGE stuff is not in
many cases that fast either due to loading or due to high error rate, but yet
they have made mobile applications LOOK good so people WANT to use
them in fact they will actually PAY to use stuff that is in many cases not
much faster in performance than a good 9k6 link. This is where we have fallen
behind by not getting people interested in doing things to make the network
a fun place to do stuff and at the same time provide applications that in the
time of need can do the effective job of handling the traffic needs while the
commercial/public safety networks come back to life.

Sad thing is that people like Jean-Paul of FBB fame have put the code in
open source so development could press on (Jean-Paul commented on the
FPAC list the other day that he has been pulled away from it due to real
world responsabilities) the code is there for others to take up the stick and
run with it, same goes for TNOS and many other fine amateur based products
that do a wonderful job, but we just have not put "pretty" front ends on them
to make them attractive to the masses.

This is why the WinLink2K system has gained so much interest, not so much
because it is a hybrid using both RF and wires to get to the servers, but
because it puts a pretty front end (Outlook Express, Thunderbird and who
knows what else will work with it) that the average person who knows e-mail
can deal with.

I always think of the aligator snapping turtle, this sucker is butt ugly but he
sure gets his share of fish, you know how he does it? This is how.

The turtle which usually looks like a big rock under the water opens his mouth
and moves his tongue making a pretty good looking worm bait. Any fish that
is even remotelly attracted to worms will quckly go over and take a look and
usualy attempt to bite, at which point the fish becomes the bite.

We need to be like that turtle and come up with some nice looking bait that
will get people into this again and let them have some fun. I do not see how
we will ever get people back into lurking a BBS, yes there will always be 1
or 2 who will continue to use the cli type screens because they can be
quite fast given the bw that is available, but they are not glitzy and that is
where we have to make our 'bait' look nice. Then we will get people back
into this part of the hobby again. We also need to see what other services
we can add to the network, I know that in Europe the DX spotting is still
big, I figure it is here too but probably a lot of people again are linked to it
over the internet, give them something that is easy to use and will let them
get to the DX spotting networks and you will probably see people come back
to that part of the hobby.

APRS has a very good following, why? Because it does provide a very useful
tool that allows vehicles to be tracked weather to be monitored and other
remote data to be gathered, and they have put nice front ends on it, so you
can go and track a vehicle or get weather data in a nice presentation, so
there is one piece that did move forward. It is in our hands we have to make
it happen.



-- 
Chuck Hast 
To paraphrase my flight instructor;
"the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going
out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn
and twisted metal."